What clustering do? Automatically identify subsets of cells without knowing what they are.
When will this function be useful? To identify the subset you are not familiar with
How to use clustering? General Steps: 1.select the population you want to analyze. If you have an idea which population to look for, then gate on that population and perform clustering on that population, if not, perform clustering on the whole population
2.Go to Platform and select cluster
3. Hit Cluster on the upper right
4. In the lower table, select a cluster and hit Create Gates button, you will see where the cluster lay in the graphs with all the combination of available parameters.
How to identify your subset use Cluster? First, select only to show the FFS, SSC and one other key parameter, like CD3, identify the main cluster and now you will see the CD3 positive subsets you are interested in fall to cluster #3, when you click on that cluster, you will see where they are in the graph of FFS and SSC and now you have a better idea of where to gate on your lymphocytes.
After you have gated the lymphocyte subset, you can move on and perform cluster on this subset to identify your CD4 and CD8 cells.
This may sounds stupid. who doesn't know how to identify CD3, 4 and 8? but when you are looking for a unfamiliar sunset. This tool will become handy!!